* The White House embraced the immigration reform proposal that a bipartisan group of senators unveiled on Monday, but stopped short of pledging President Obama’s signature, noting that actual legislation has yet to be drafted.

* Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the Senate's third-ranking Democrat and a member of the bipartisan Senate group, said the Senate could pass an immigration bill by late spring or summer. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) stopped short of fully endorsing the new proposal, but he praised the group for their “hard work" and said that fixing the nation’s broken immigration system and improving border security are a “crucial objective that our nation needs to address." House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), meanwhile, gave the proposal a noncommittal response.

* There is some bad news for McConnell in a new Louisville Courier-Journal Bluegrass poll. Thirty-four percent of Kentucky voters said they plan to vote against McConnell while just 17 percent say they will vote for him in the automated survey conducted by SurveyUSA. Just 34 percent of Republicans said they would vote for McConnell no matter who runs against him. Meanwhile, some liberal activists have have been telling tea party organizers they would spend money to help a conservative candidate defeat McConnell.

* New Jersey State Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D) will not challenge Gov. Chris Christie (R), he announced in a statement Monday. Sweeney's decision not to challenge the very popular incumbent comes on the heels of former Democratic governor Richard Codey's announcement that he won't run. State Sen. Barbara Buono (D) is the only major Democrat in the race right now, and the party faithful appears to be coalescing around her candidacy, even as polls show her trailing Christie badly. Democratic Reps. Bill Pascrell and Frank Pallone endorsed Buono on Monday, as did the chairman of the state Democratic Party.

* The special election to fill the seat held by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) will be June 25. The primary is set for April 30.

* Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) will begin his reelection campaign with a healthy $3.6 million in his campaign account. Baucus, who is potentially vulnerable in 2014, raised $610,000 during the fourth quarter of 2012 and spent $121,500.

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